Cheats outrun anti-doping police, AIU president says

Athletics’ Integrity Unit president David Hauman says current efforts to catch dopers have “stalled”.

David Hauman, the straight-talking and experienced chairman of the Athletics Integrity Unit, told the World Conference on Doping in Sport this month that the global anti-doping system had “slowed down” and was not as effective as it should be.

Speaking at the Korean conference, he said: “Let’s be honest and pragmatic…elite-level intentional dopers avoid detection. Today, we are not efficient enough in catching cheaters. We have great educational programs that help, but they don’t affect the willful violators of elite sport.”

“Our ineffectiveness in dealing with those who break the rules damages the credibility of the anti-doping movement, which risks our message of clean sport falling on deaf ears.”

AIU has built a reputation in athletics in recent years for nabbing a number of high-profile drug offenders. But Haumann said that while it prides itself on its “demonstrated ability to catch elite athletes who cheat, AIU is not catching enough of them and significant improvements are needed.”

Houman, who spent 13 years as director-general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, urged the anti-doping community to “move beyond compliance to a system that supports effective, ambitious anti-doping efforts.”

Asking whether collaboration between sporting disciplines is possible to identify the best science, the best data and the best testing, he suggested that Anti-Doping Organizations (ADOs) be supported with the best investigative and scientific tools and encouraged to succeed, while being properly motivated to pursue anti-doping excellence.